Biggles Sets a Trap/plot
Chapter 1: Biggles Has a Visitor Sir Leofric Landaville, a young man whom Biggles had once prosecuted for dangerous flying, calls on Biggles with an unusual request. If he should be found dead, could Biggles ensure that it isn't murder? Leofric explains that he just inherited the family title and estate from his brother Charles whom had died recently in mysterious circumstances. So now the Curse of the Landavilles has descended on him and he believes he will be next. He is in a quandary as he wants to get married but can't do it with the threat of death hanging over him Biggles is intrigued and he and Bertie accept Leofric's invitation to go down to his estate Ringlesby Hall in the New Forest, Hampshire. Chapter 2: Coincidence--or What? Down at the somewhat dilapidated Hall, Leofric narrates his family history to Biggles and Bertie. His family received the estate after his ancestor had performed a special service for Henry VII who had disinherited the incumbent de Warine family who had fought against him. Henry had granted the family a pension but laid down the condition that the recipient must spend 10 months of every year at Ringlesby Hall. The 400 pounds of the pension, large in its time, had diminished over time, but the Landavilles could neither move away nor sell the Hall. Since that time, the senior Landaville had always met a violent death. Chapter 3: Stranger Than Fiction Leofric goes on to narrate why he believes his brother had been murdered even though the coronet had returned a verdict b of accidental death. In the first place, they had heard a raven croak, traditionally the harbinger of a death in the family. Second, he had heard two shots close together--but his brother could not have reloaded so quickly. Lastly, his brother had, before dying, muttered a puzzling warning to hom to "Beware the three stars ... the hollow stars." Chapter 4: So It Was Murder The next day, Biggles, Bertie and Leo go over the grounds of Ringlesby Hall. At the spot where Charles had been killed, they find a cigarette butt and a spent cartridge case. By comparing it with one from Leo's rifle, Biggles confirms that it came from a different weapon, thus proving that Charles had been murdered. Chapter 5: The Old Oak Chest Returning to the house, Leo introduces Biggles and Bertie to Diana Mortimore, the girl Leo hoped to marry. She had stopped by on the way to the village. Biggles wants to look at the original charter, so Leo takes them to an old oak chest in a small upstairs room. To their surprise, Biggles finds signs that the lock has been recently tampered with. After viewing the charter, they discover a piece of vellum which Biggles surmises was the case or envelope which contained the original Curse as delivered to the Landaville family. On it they see a coat of arms. Leo describes it as a blue background with a castellated gold chevron between three silver mullets (the rowels of spurs). This, he explains, are different from the Landaville arms which consists of a rose on a stalk. Chapter 6: The Raven Croaks Outside the building, Biggles sees that an old wistaria plant could give a potential thief access to the window of the room where the oak chest was. He decides to set a trap in case the intruder returned. Two threads are laid across the window and then led inside the house to the bedroom which was prepared for Biggles and Bertie. There the threads are tied to some heavy books suspended over the floor. A thief entering by the window would break the threads, causing the books to crash with a loud noise. They are discussing their plans for the next day when they hear a raven croak! Biggles dashes to the main road but only sees cars, motorbikes and a woman on a horse. Leo identifies the woman as the sister of the owner of the local pub in the village. Chapter 7: A Lady Asks Some Questions Next morning, Biggles and Bertie are on their way to explore the local church when they are held up by New Forest ponies on the road and come meet Diana Mortimore who stops them for a chat. She wants to know what is wrong with Leo. She thinks he appears to be worried about something but isn't telling her. Could it also be to do with another woman? Biggles has a tough time evading her questions but he does learn that the woman she suspects is Julia Warren, the girl they had seen riding by the hall the day before. Biggles reassures her that Leo has no interest in Julia at all. Chapter 8: A Glimmer of Daylight Down at the village church, the vicar shows Biggles and Bertie around and they come across the old tombs of the De Warines, the family which Henry VII dispossessed and handed Ringlesby Hall to the Landavilles. The coat of arms of the De Warines look familiar and to Biggles' surprise, the vicar calls it a broken chevron with "three stars"! The vicar also tells them the name of the local pub or inn used to be called "The Rose", after the arms of the local lord, but, some time in the 17th century, it had been changed to "The Spurs". Some pieces of the puzzle seem to be falling in place. Biggles is almost convinced the old Curse of the Landavilles is still operating, albeit with human assistance. Could Charles have seen the De Warine coat of arms and called it "three stars" just like the vicar? Could the Warrens, who run the pub, be the De Warines? That would explain changing the name from the Rose to the Spurs, after the De Warine family arms. Biggles decides a drink at the pub is called for. Chapter 9: At the Sign of the Spurs Biggles and Bertie arrive at the Spurs where they meet the landlord, William Warren. Warren offers Biggles a cigarette, which Biggles notices has a cork tip like the butt he found at the scene of Charles' murder. He stands the landlord a drink. Moments later there is a raven's croak outside and Warren hurriedly excuses himself. Biggles quickly pockets Warren's glass and replaces it with a clean one. Warren comes back in to say his young sister had just returned from riding and she had a pet jackdaw. Back at Ringlesby Hall, Biggles correctly guesses that Leo has just heard a raven's croak. Biggles now sends Bertie back to Scotland Yard with instructions to lift the fingerprints from Warren's glass and get a search warrant for the Spurs in case he needed one. The clues are mounting but so was the danger. Biggles is certain a murder had been done and another is probably in the pipeline. Chapter 10: Warning for Diana Bertie goes off but now comes Diana in a hurry. Someone has just taken a shot at her on the road. Biggles is shocked but follows her in Leo's car and asks her to point out the place where the shot was fired. Over at her house, Biggles decides to take her into his confidence about his investigation, now that her life is also in danger. Diana is calm and sensible and tells Biggles to go back and take care of Leo and promises not to say anything. Back at the scene of the shot, Biggles finds, as he expected, a cigarette butt with a cork tip and a cartridge case matching the one found where Charles had been shot dead. Chapter 11: A Near Miss Biggles tells Leo about what happened to Diana and he frets that he can't do anything. Biggles urges him to be patient. In the night, Biggles is awakened when a set of books comes crashing onto the floor. His trap has triggered! He rushes to the room but accidentally knocks a piece of armour onto the floor. The noise must surely alarm the intruder! Biggles gets to the room in time to see a masked man climb out through the window. He half turns and takes a shot at Biggles and then falls into the bushes below. A car is heard starting up, and what with the rain and the dark night, pursuit is impossible. There's a hacksaw on the floor in the room--evidently the intruder had been planning to saw through the padlocks on Leo's chest. Chapter 12: Biggles Explains Bertie comes back and says he has been almost run over by a black Mercedes which was hurriedly departing. He has however noted its number and gives it. Leo says he must be mistaken because that's William Warren's car! No mistake, Biggles says, and begins to explain. Bertie has brought back the fingerprints lifted off Warren's glass. Using a fingerprint kit which Bertie has brought back, Biggles lifts some prints off the hacksaw. They match. They search the bushes outside and find a .22 revolver and again the prints from this match. Bertie has brought back a search warrant so Biggles plans to confront Warren in the morning. Chapter 13: Death Calls a Truce Biggles, Bertie and Leo drive to the Spurs. On the way they come across the scene of a horrific car accident. It's Warren's car. A local constable tells them he had collided with a fallen tree at speed and had died before he could be brought to the hospital. Surprised by this turn of events, Biggles changes his approach entirely and opts to speak to Julia alone first. Biggles meets Julia at the Spurs and explains that he understands the whole background and has the evidence linking her brother to the killing of Charles and the other offences. She confesses that her family were the De Warines. She tells Biggles that she had always wanted William to lay off but he had been stubbornly devoted to the family feud. Her role was limited only to carrying a raven past Ringlesby Hall every now and then. As for the attempt to kill Diana, Julia surmises that William might have wanted to get her out of the way to make it possible for Julia to marry Leo. At Biggles' urging, Julia and Leo apologise to each other and promise to set aside the family feud. As he tells Leo, people with pedigrees as long as theirs can afford to be generous. Leo tells him Diana would be coming to Ringlesby Hall shortly to discuss the date for their marriage. With the case settled, Biggles and Bertie return to London. Category:Plot summaries